Google: Requests for data rose in second half of 2015

Google said that global government requests for its user data had risen in the second half of 2015 to an all-time high. Authorities made 40,677 requests in the second half of 2015, according to an update made to the company’s transparency report, up from 35,365 in the first half of the year. The number of users and accounts affected rose from 68,908 to 81,311. More than 12,000 requests were made in the United States, affecting 27,157 users or accounts.
Requests have risen every year since at least 2010, the first year when Google released 12 months worth of data. The proportion of instances in which Google handed over some data remained relatively constant, rising from 63 percent to 64 percent. That figure was 79 percent in the United States.